Page 21 - Volume 14 Number 10

Both of these actions will reduce the pressure inside the cowl and decrease the chance for the piece to depart completely as you return for landing.
For all of the older King Airs that still have the “chin type” cowling with the electrothermal deice boot, realize that every time the cowling is removed the electric leads to the boot must be disconnected. Vice versa, they must be reconnected upon cowling installation. Yet it is impossible to verify the connection before takeoff, since this system is prevented from operating on the ground due to squat switch activation. So you, the “test pilot,” must turn on the lip boots separately, left and right, in flight while observing a slight increase in loadmeter readings. Only when that amperage increase is verified do you know that the boots were truly reconnected.
Do you know that in most King Airs the battery box cover can be installed backward? The air vent louvers need to be at the aft end when installed, not in front. Air cooling is not nearly as important now as it was when NiCad batteries were common. Still, let’s position the cover correctly.
If your airplane has undergone a significant avionics upgrade, it is so very important to do a flight test to verify that it is doing what it is supposed to do. Even the most capable and conscientious avionics shop cannot know for sure how an autopilot will track that new LPV glide path, for example, until it is demonstrated in flight. So
many, times I have found rather mind-blowing errors in this arena. One King Air would track its new GTN750 GPS course just fine in the normal leg mode but it would always go in the exact opposite direction when in OBS mode. Another would never enter a programmed holding pattern. Instead, it would merely turn to the holding course heading and fly that until it ran out of gas!
I have seen a newly-installed GPS unit that never had the HSI’s course needle deviate from the center position! And this was far enough back in time that a flight test was required to gain IFR GPS approval ... and the flight test had been signed off as satisfactory!
The Killer of Killers ... Loose Friction Knobs
This is VERY important. Many pilots ensure their friction knobs are snugged up properly once and never give them further attention ... which is OK. Others fiddle with the friction often, loosening it for taxiing and tightening for flight and that’s also OK. But pity the pilot who never adjusts them and then assumes that they are at the same setting when leaving the shop as they were when entering it. Folks, whenever engine rigging takes place, it is common that the friction controls will be backed off to the totally loose position. This allows the engine-end of the control to be moved freely by hand, with the cockpit-end moving in unison. If the friction has
De-icing Never Looked This Good
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OCTOBER 2020
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 19